Jamestown, New York is investing in its youth and planning for the future by modernizing the Jamestown Public School district with new LG CreateBoard smart boards that deliver enhanced learning opportunities, increased engagement and direct relevance to students’ daily lives and skill sets. District officials and technology providers have outfitted every classroom across the district’s ten K-12 schools with 86-inch LG CreateBoards, offering faculty and students expanded access to popular digital learning tools while simplifying technology management through LG’s centralized platforms.
When recent school funding initiatives made it possible for the municipality to invest in education upgrades, Chuck Marzec, the district’s Director of Technology, turned to Larry Meister, President of IT solutions provider Mercury Networks. Meister, who has worked with the district for over a decade, collaborated with Marzec to determine which products and solutions would maximize learning benefits for the most students. Considering the timing, pricing, and available funding, they concluded that the LG CreateBoards could transform the experiences of every student and deliver forward-thinking classrooms that prepare students for a tech-filled world and job market.
The district last updated its projection-based classroom systems in 2012, before the explosion of new touch-sensitive smart boards that are sweeping across the education landscape. Attractive pricing helped convince the district that smart boards would be the most impactful, sustainable and widely deployable solution, offering greater capabilities than existing systems while standardizing every classroom to simplify daily management and long-term maintenance.
“LG’s easy-to-use CreateBoard interactive digital boards come at an incredible value, making them the best fit for Jamestown Public Schools. The district initially considered outfitting about half of
its classrooms with a competitor product at double the price. With the CreateBoard, they’re essentially doubling their investment, creating streamlined experiences for staff and students in every room and school,” Meister explained. “The district’s previous projection systems were single-room solutions lacking significant communication options and new advances in interactivity or cloud-based learning tools. Now, with the LG CreateBoards, they have a unified 500+ display network that can be monitored, managed, and used to distribute content from a single location for morning announcements or emergencies. Additionally, the ability to set automatic on/off schedules ensures no energy is wasted, eliminating one task for today’s busy teachers.”
The district is excited about what the technology can unleash in terms of classroom participation and faculty lesson plans, including simple access to popular web-based tools such as Google Classroom. The 40-point multi-touch digital displays allow a variety of interactive lesson plans and activities that can invite multiple students to use the board at once, in addition to convenient streaming and mobile device connections for educators and students alike. For instance, teachers can quickly log in to their accounts for Google and other services by scanning an on-screen QR code with their smartphone, and then leave the room knowing that the display automatically logs out of all accounts when the wireless connection is severed.
“It’s hard to overstate the value of standardized solutions for our students, faculty and district as a whole,” Marzec said. “Running a school or district involves a lot of moving parts, and when we have teachers who may use multiple classrooms or even multiple buildings throughout a day or a week, giving them the same tools everywhere ensures there’s no time lost sorting out technical issues or troubleshooting compatibility with their prepared lessons. The same is true for today’s students who have never known a world without touchscreens. With a streamlined experience year after year, they can become fairly advanced users of the LG CreateBoard technology throughout their education, helping develop explicit technical skills alongside the school’s curriculum.”
With LG CreateBoards, teachers can easily augment lessons with presentations or videos, screen share lessons or content from their own devices and enable students to screen share projects from their devices. With the new centralized control capabilities, Jamestown Public Schools can also easily deliver video morning announcements to every room without any action required from teachers. Lessons can be saved and stored online for later viewing and study, including live
annotations over text or video that enable teachers to provide context, information or discussion to delve further than standard textbook descriptions or pre-prepared content.
According to Jason Hubbard, Senior Account Manager for Education at LG Business Solutions, implementing CreateBoards can also fundamentally change how teachers approach the classroom by freeing them to leave their desk when using digital resources. “The two-way connection between laptops and the LG CreateBoard means that they can control and manipulate their computer or content from the CreateBoard, unlike a projection system or other non-smart solution where they have to be at the desk to exert control,” said Hubbard. “This offers educators greater freedom of movement and caters to a variety of teaching styles, which can aid engagement and attentiveness, directly affecting student and school outcomes.”
When consulting Mercury Networks, the district considered different manufacturers and options, landing on the LG CreateBoard solution based on capabilities, manufacturer support and cost. The upgrade project began with 10 initial installations at the high school, then an expansion to five schools, and then the final decision to outfit every classroom all at once ahead of the 2024-2025 school year. Each room’s audio solution is also being upgraded to provide better sound quality and ensure long-term consistency for all users.
“We are excited to see our teachers and students leverage these technologies for greater collaboration and enhanced discussions in a way that encourages participation and connects with students’ daily experiences and digital lifestyles,” Marzec added. “Additionally, buying into LG’s ecosystem has offered us new opportunities to consider deploying connected digital signage displays in hallways, cafeterias, entrances and other public spaces to provide school messaging or community content such as student achievement reels or replays of events including sports, performances, guest speeches and extracurricular activities.”
Marzec also noted how LG’s attention to detail and willingness to provide assistance went above and beyond his expectations. In the past, technology providers had been much more hands-off, while LG acted more like a partner in terms of working to answer questions, resolve issues and ensure the district was fully satisfied with the outcome. The last installations concluded in early July 2024, with every classroom at every school ready to launch for the fall semester.
